Wet products such as wet wipes have many applications. They may be used with small children and infants when changing diapers, they may be used for house hold cleaning tasks, they may be used for cleaning hands, they may be used as a bath tissue, they may be used as by a caregiver to clean a disabled or incontinent adult, or they may be used in and for a whole host of other applications, where it is advantageous to have a wipe or towel that has some moisture in it.
Wet wipes have traditionally been made in processes in which larger webs of wipes are initially made and than these larger webs are converted into smaller rolls or sheets that can be placed in a dispenser. Embodiments of dispensers are described in copending applications Ser. No. 09/545,995 filed Apr. 10, 2000; Ser. No. 09/565,227 filed May 4, 2000; Ser. Nos. 09/659,307; 09/659,295; 09/660,049; 09/659,311; 09/660,040; 09/659,283; 09/659,284 and 09/659,306, filed Sep. 12, 2000; Ser. No. 09/748,618, filed Dec. 22, 2000; Ser. No. 09/841,323, filed Apr. 24, 2001; Ser. No. 09/844,731, filed Apr. 27, 2001; and Ser. No. 09/849,935, filed May 4, 2001, all of which are commonly assigned to Kimberly-Clark, and the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Wet wipes can be any wipe, towel, tissue or sheet like product including natural fibers, synthetic fibers, synthetic material and combinations thereof, that is wet or moist. Examples of wet wipes are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,423,804 B1; 6,429,261 B1; 6,444,214 B1; and in copending U.S. patent applications Ser. Nos. 09/564,449; 09/565,125; 09/564,837; 09/564,531; 09/564,268; 09/564,424; 09/564,780; 09/564,212; 09/565,623 all filed May 4, 2000; and Ser. No. 09/900,698, filed Jul. 6, 2001. All of these patents and patent applications are commonly assigned to Kimberly-Clark, and the disclosures of all these documents are incorporated herein by reference.
There is a need for improved methods for making wet wipes, particularly for making rolls of wet wipes. Typically, wet wipes are manufactured as a roll of dry sheets and are then soaked in a wetting solution. Among other disadvantages, this method can lead to undesirable variations in the properties and performance of the wipes. It is desirable to manufacture wet wipes such that the wetting solution and its ingredients are uniformly distributed throughout the web material as well as the final product. Insufficient adhesion between the tail and the rest of the wet roll can lead to difficulties in the manufacture of wet wipes. It is thus desirable to increase the adhesion of the tail of a roll of wet wipes during the roll production process while maintaining the uniform distribution of ingredients.